When my firstborn was two, we lived in a rental home in urban PDX. One day, my little boy was playing with a ball, which he inadvertantly kicked into a busy street. Naturally, he chased after it.
Too far to reach him before he reached traffic on our unfenced rental home, I screamed at the top of my lungs, and managed to get his attention, which I retained as I was sprinting towards him with every erg I could muster.
The next day I had a fence, made of pallets donated by local factories sympathetic to my plight.
Soon we had a 1974 66 passenger Schoolbus, our ticket to somewhere else, where there was no traffic.
I love pallets to this day.
I used to have more pallets than I knew what to do with when I worked shipping at a Chevy dealership. I was always turning them into furniture, fences, and had plenty of dry firewood out of them.
Boosing your REAL comment with an upvote.
I knew a guy who somehow was able to get the wooden blocks they used to keep cars from rolling about at sea when they shipped them to the USA. He had an amazing variety of exotic hardwoods (in 4x4 less than 2' long) which he used in various crafts.
Still jelly today LOL
Glad to hear it! Its only getting busier out there.. You did good to get out!
My kids are now profiting from their early adventures in that Schoolie. During their formative years, they pretty much consigned me to Hell as a cruel and tyrannical psychopath, who made them work, work, work, refused to have TV, and was pretty much the source of all misery they knew.
Now, they find life easy, and are beginning to understand what I did for them. At least those that will still talk to me =p
Oh my goodness! I can only imagine the fear and adrenaline you had! A 1974 Schoolbus sounds like a perfect solution! ☺️
We named her 'Any', because Any is enough.
Any had a woodstove that worked superbly, and if properly stoked, would literally glow with heat. I remember my second son scampering about one morning clad in nothing but a diaper shortly after we given a 50% paper interest in a 2 acre parcel of raw forest near Pacific City, Oregon, and blithely scooting past the stove glowing dully red with incredible heat.
That also was a moment of terror, and within minutes there was a barrier, and two days later a propane heater (safe for use inside) that I paid off with labor at an RV repair place.
It would be difficult to describe all the mistakes I made, or how valuable those mistakes were, because that is how I learned not to do those things.
Edit: boy, trying to grammar before the coffee is also a mistake XD